Half a Man by Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo's latest book is about a sailor who was in the merchant navy during World War II and who suffered a catastrophic injury that changed his life forever. The story is narrated by the grandson who is now in his fifties, remembering how his relationship with his wounded grandfather grows through the years.

As a young child, Michael had nightmares about a man with a twisted face who jumps out of a sinking ship that is on fire. The nightmares always happened before his grandfather's visits at Christmas.These visits were not frequent because his grandfather lived on the Isles of Scilly. Unlike other people, and against his parents warnings, Michael would look at his grandfather. Unlike others who were revolted by what they saw, Michael could see past his grandfather's scars.

"I was never revolted by what I saw. If I had been, I could have looked away easily. I think i was more fascinated that anything else, and horrified too, because I'd been told something of what happened to him in the war. I saw the suffering he had gone through in his deep-blue eyes -- eyes that hardly ever blinked, I noticed."

Although Michael asked his parents about how his grandpa was wounded, they were reluctant to tell him much about what happened or about his grandmother whom he never met. Michael began visiting his grandpa in the Scilly Isles when he was twelve. His grandpa's world was much different from busy, noisy London; he spent his time fishing and reading. As the years went by, in the quiet time spent together Michael forged a strong bond and a deep understanding with his grandpa that led to his learning the truth about what happened during the war and in the years afterwards.

Discussion

Half a Man is a touching story about a family in desperate need of healing and forgiveness. The story centers on the importance of how we "see" others and of accepting people as they are. The hurt in Michael's family began when his grandmother Annie, was unable to see past her husband's terrible wounds. Grandpa tells Michael that Annie came to see him in hospital but things were different. "Right away I saw she didn't look at me the same, didn't speak to me like I was normal, like the nurses did. She still loved me, I think, but all she saw was a monster man." When he returned home, grandpa found that Annie still would not look at him. This deeply hurt Michael's grandpa and Annie's inability to accept him for who he was after the war, led to deeper problems. This inability to see grandpa was passed onto Annie's daughter - Michael's mother and eventually to Michael's father. They mistakenly believe that looking at grandpa was rude and upsetting to him. The only person able to look was Michael. At first Michael's looks were secret glances. These furtive looks turned into longer stares at grandpa's face and his missing fingers. At first Michael was scared when he looked at his grandpa's face, but as he grew older, the fear disappeared and he came to recognize the suffering. This acceptance leads Michael's grandpa to open up to him about what really happened to him many years ago - something he has never told anyone. Like anyone else, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, grandpa wanted to be seen and accepted.

Michael's grandpa too struggled to accept what happened to him. He admitted to Michael that he drank too much and said things that he shouldn't have, leading Annie to leave him. He tells Michael, "I don't blame her, not anymore. No one wants a monster for a husband. No one wants half a man, and that's what I was, Michael, half a man. That's what I still am."

Therefore, Half a Man is also a story which explores the lasting impact war has on those directly involved and on their families - often into the generations that follow. Morpurgo's gentle story-telling conveys the sense of loss experienced by grandpa's family when he returns home so terribly wounded. As grandpa struggled to recover from his catastrophic wounds he discovered the one thing he desired most - his family, taken from him. His beloved wife, Annie, who could have been a source of comfort and healing, was unable to look at him. Their struggles to cope with the aftermath of the war led to Annie abandoning him, taking their little girl who was Michael's mother, with her. The result was a family completely broken: Michael's grandpa was consumed by hate and Michael's own mother grew up angry at her mother for taking her away from her dad.

It is left up to Michael to bring about his grandpa's wish for the family to reconcile - specifically his wife and daughter. This happens at grandpa's funeral.

Michael's grandpa mentions that it was Dr. McIndoe who put him back together in the hospital. "It was him that did it, put us back together, and I'm not talking about the operations. He was a magician in the operating room, all right. But it's what he did afterward for us. He made us feel right again inside, like we mattered, like we weren't monster men."

Dr. Archibald McIndoe was in fact a real person. At the time of World War II, there were only four plastic surgeons in Britain and Dr. McIndoe was one of those. Dr. McIndoe was stationed at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead (where Michael's grandpa was treated). There he founded the Centre for Plastic and Jaw Surgery to treat mainly RAF causalities of World War II. Dr. McIndoe developed new ways to treat the horrific burns suffered by RAF pilots and championed the rehabilitation and reintegration of these terribly disfigured men back into society.

In 1941 he formed the Guinea Pig Club which consisted mainly of recovering RAF patients. McIndoe believed that the disfigured airmen should be fully reintegrated into society at a time when many who saw these men in public were horrified and demanded they remain hidden.  McIndoe died young, at age 59 in 1960, but his legacy lives on in the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation which works to develop new ways to treat burns and soft tissue injuries. Morpurgo's Half a Man is dedicated to Eric Pearce, "one of the very last of McIndoe's 'Guinea Pigs.' "

You can read more about the amazing Sir Archibald McIndoe on the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation website.

Half a Man is a story simply told, beautifully illustrated by Gemma O'Callaghan's prints.

Book Details:

Half a Man by Michael Morpurgo
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press   2005
53 pp.

Fire Girl by Tony Abbott

Firegirl is a coming of age novel about a boy struggling to find the courage to do the right thing when a severely burned girl spends a short time in his school.

Tom Bender is in seventh grade at St. Catherine's Catholic school. Tom has a crush on stunning Courtney Zisky who sits in the last seat of the last row in Mrs. Tracy's class. Tom who wasn't a strong reader, managed to move up into the same group as Courtney in sixth grade and that's when his crush really took off. Courtney is so pretty she could be in fashion magazines and sitting close to her made him realize how nice her hair smells. He often fantasized about how he could save Courtney's life but Courtney has never actually noticed Tom nor has she ever included him. He is after all, "a sweaty, fat kid with baggy pants..." But that was soon to change in seventh grade, with the arrival of  Jessica Feeney.

Since he can't get Courtney to notice him as a result of his superpowers, Tom decides that he will nominate her as a candidate for class president. However Tom's attention is drawn away from Courtney when Mrs. Tracy announces that a new girl will be arriving in their class that day. Mrs. Tracy tells that class that Jessica was badly burned in a fire and that she will be attending St. Catherine's while she has treatments for her burns at a nearby hospital. Mrs. Tracy warns that class about how Jessica looks but this does little to prepare Tom and his classmates for the reality of Jessica's appearance.

When Jessica arrives, Tom and his classmates are shocked and repulsed by Jessica's appearance. Tom is concerned that she is in pain and feels that "being in that skin would make you want to scream and scream until you died." Tom's friend, Jeff Hicks, is grossed out by Jessica's appearance. Tom gradually learns more about Jessica, that her family is from Boston and that she has had many skin grafts. Jessica has been to many hospitals and likely won't be at St. Catherine's very long.

Tom's mother suggests that it might help if he talked to Jessica. This suggestion causes Tom to reconsider Jessica and to begin to think about the reality of her situation. He begins to sneak glances at her during class and to realize that behind the melted and scarred skin is a person. He finds it hard to think that Jessica is like him and the other kids in the class. But for his classmates, Jessica becomes an object for speculation. Jeff and Rich seem more interested in how Jessica was burned and begin to make up stories about what happened. Tom wants to stop these conversations but doesn't really know how. He doesn't have the courage to speak up at first. In an attempt to divert the conversation away from gossip, he ends up revealing his crush on Courtney. Things become even worse when her classmates discover a photograph that Jessica is carrying around. She tells them that the photo is of her dead sister, Anne. This revelation only serves to fuel the outrageous rumours and gossip Tom's classmates spread throughout the school regarding what happened to Jessica.

While all this is going on Tom's friendship with Jeff begins to deteriorate. Jeff's parents broke up two years ago and he now lives with his mother who works long hours as a nurse. His father isn't really interested in spending time with him now that he has a new girlfriend. All this has made Jeff an angry boy who acts out. Tom loves the Cobra, a classic sports car which Jeff's uncle Chuck supposedly owns. Jeff invites Tom to see the car when his uncle comes down and to go for a ride in it. But when the uncle doesn't show, Tom begins to wonder if either really exist.

When Tom is asked by Mrs. Tracy to take Jessica's school work to her house, he is invited in by Jessica's father. Tom spends some time talking with Jessica and before he leaves her house, Jessica's father tells him what really happened to her. This meeting completely changes how Tom thinks about Jessica but can he help his classmates change too?

Discussion

Fire Girl is a story that asks young readers to consider how outward appearances often do not accurately reflect who a person is. Abbott demonstrates this best through the interactions between Jessica and Tom Bender. Jessica is terribly disfigured by her burns and everyone in the class is overwhelmed by her appearance. Tom's description is graphic.
"Jessica Feeney's face, the first thing everyone looked at, was like a mask. I looked at her, then away, and then back at her. I couldn't believe I was looking at the face of someone alive....Her lips were swollen. They nearly filled the space between her nose and chin. Her eyes peeked out from behind skin that looked melted....Her fingers were bent as if she were trying to grab something."

Yet days later, after searching about burn victims on the internet, Tom finds his perspective changing and sees her as more than just a burn victim. "I found that I started, in little bits, raising my head to look at her, but always when I knew she was turned the other way or couldn't see me. I discovered that if you didn't see the edge or her face or her hand or arm lying on the desk, she looked almost like any girl with dirty hair. It was sort of crushed and matted in the back. It almost began to feel as if there was a person in there."

By the end of the novel Tom has a very different view of Jessica. Tom sees past Jessica's outer disfigurement and recognizes that "Jessica was smart and nice and she'd been to lots of schools, so she knew how things worked." When Jeff beats him in nominating Courtney, Tom attempts to nominate Jessica but Mrs. Tracy doesn't hear him and he feels like he has failed. By the end of the novel, Tom, who initially found it difficult to hold Jessica's hand in class, now finds himself hugging her and crying when they say good bye. He even knows her eye colour.

Unlike Jessica, whom everyone can't help but notice, Tom is not noticed. He describes himself as a fat and sweaty kid and he's not popular. He's shy and doesn't speak up much. During the class campaign for president, Tom's mother "kept at me to get out there and get involved"  It is because of Jessica that Tom gradually begins to take steps to put himself out there. That first attempt is to do something kind for Jessica; first in trying to stop the wild gossip about her and then later on in an attempt to muster the courage to nominate her for class president. Although he doesn't completely succeed, these first steps are important. Jessica encourages him. "You really have to speak louder," she tells Tom.

Throughout the novel, Tom comes to a better understanding of what is important in life. At the beginning of the novel he is only interested in comics and the Cobra sports car. He wants to be popular like the beautiful Courtney Zisky and he wants to be noticed by her - hence the fantasies about being a superhero who rescues her.  He is ashamed of how he has behaved towards Jessica and how his classmates have treated her. But Jessica tells him "Every time I go in the hospital, I find out all over again about what really matters. This doesn't." Like Jessica, Tom starts to understand there are more important things in life.

Fire Girl is an excellent novel to explore the above themes in greater detail along with many more including those of  identity and the nature of relationships. Told in Tom Bender's voice, Fire Girl is a sensitive, emotional story. Tom's character is very authentic; he's immature, sometimes caring, sometimes insensitive, in other words, typical for boy in seventh grade. Abbott has written that Fire Girl came out of a real personal experience in grade seven that included "a girl like Jessica, a friend like Jeff, a class election, a Cobra..."

Book Details:
Fire Girl by Tony Abbott
New York: Little, Brown and Company     2006
145 pp.